When a VIP visits the ballpark, the players should banter with them about the game, the playoff race and the timeless appeal of our nation’s past time, right?

Not for Jayson Werth.

The Washington Nationals outfielder got a chance to meet Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this season, according to Sports Illustrated, and used the opportunity to talk policy, not pitchers.

“Werth tried to ask Bernanke questions about QE3, the latest round of economic stimulus, but Bernanke preferred balls and strikes, Werth says: ‘He wasn’t talking about that economic stuff. So we talked about baseball, and it was a hoot,’” SI reports.

The article runs down the list of politicos who have made it to Nationals games this year:

“This season, D.C.’s powerbrokers are hooking up with the Nationals. The team has had had five Supreme Court Justices — John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor — attend games, and so have Vice President Joe Biden, a Phillies fan, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and several cabinet members, including Kathleen Sebelius (Health and Human Services), Hilda Solis (Labor) and Ray LaHood (Transportation). Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and a season ticket holder, has been seen, in faded jeans, polo shirt and weathered Nationals cap, standing in line buying ice cream or visiting with Nationals players in the home dugout before the game.”

“When you play in Los Angeles, you meet movie stars,” Werth said. “When you’re playing in Washington, you meet people that run the world. That’s pretty cool. But you have to win. These people weren’t around last year when we weren’t winning.”

One player got particularly star-struck over one pol.

“Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez was freaking out as well when he met [David] Petraeus and [Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Sandy] Winnefeld.

“I just didn’t want to say something stupid and be an idiot around people that powerful,” Gonzalez said.